ATOPIA: urban development and spatial transformation | 2006-2010
D-City: where sidewalk cafes meet the stars | 2009-2010 | base dimension: 200 x 600 cm
installation view in exhibition ATOPIA: Art and City in the 21st Century | Centre de Cultura Conteporània de Barcelona, Spain
From Sidewalk Cafes to the Stars | 2006 | AstroTurf: 400 x 600 cm | ARCUS Project, Japan
Signs-Sites-Sights-Sighs | 2009 | 31 signs mounted on 13 stands | MDF, PVC, plexiglass
Find Yourself Here | 2009 | wood, MDF, stainless steel, plexiglass | H 260 x W 90 x D 67cm; signs: H 8 x W 45 cm each
These sculptural works imagine the city being evolved into an entity larger than itself - a seductive but isolated machinery, where cultural histories and memories have ceased to exist. This fantastical metropolis invokes a utopian realm whose perception lies beyond physical vision. This is a metaphor for all that the city of the future promises: dreams of progress, modernity, light, and spectacle. Chung’s vision also evokes the more mechanized dimension, the industrial and technological basis for such wondrous developments in highly planned cities. Her play with scale provokes viewers to question whether they are looking at a city in miniature or an enlarged computer memory board, its surfaces meticulously covered with colorful patterns, concealing the workings within.
Living in Japan and Vietnam during this time, Chung was particularly interested in the ベッドタウンor beddotaun (bed town) phenomenon in Japan and the urbanization frenzies that Vietnam was (and still is) undergoing, especially areas in Saigon where rural and urban intersect. She observed the city and inhabitants through spatial and cultural transformations linked to progress and economic development. Chung is acutely aware of how such development articulates the politics of disremembering, whether through the state-shaped historical amnesia with the promise of progress, or due to the dominant pull of economic power. Chung’s sculptures created during this time reflect the power discrepancy between inner and outer cities and within a society, as well as the displacement of its population. These works anticipate her later projects that unpack the power structure in the global geopolitical context that contributes to displacement and refugee migration.
[Mediums: polystyrene, assorted tapes, thermoplastic adhesive, Astro turf, painted plexiglass, MDF.]
Related Exhibitions:
ATOPIA: Art and City in the 21st Century | Centre de Cultura Conteporània de Barcelona, Spain | 2010
Art Stays | 10th Festival of Contemporary Art, Ptuj, Slovenija | 2012